Many international stars expected at Theater Regensburg on 23 February 2026
Berlin – The stage / costume designer and director Jürgen Rose will be honoured for his lifetime achievement at the OPER! AWARDS 2026, the jury announced today in Berlin. The award will be presented to Jürgen Rose personally at a gala event at the Theater Regensburg on 23 February 2026.
The winners of the other 19 OPER! AWARDS categories will also be announced and personally honoured that evening. Among the international guests expected to attend are Cecilia Bartoli, Jonathan Tetelman, Barrie Kosky, Christof Loy, Ermonela Jaho, Nadezhda Karyazina, Erin Morley and Miina-Liisa Värelä.
About the OPER! AWARDS
The OPER! AWARDS are Germany’s only publicly awarded international opera prize. They are presented annually at a gala event to the world’s best artists and creatives of the international opera scene, working on or behind the stage, chosen across 20 categories by a jury of music journalists. Assessment period is the calendar year 2025. Last year’s winner of „Best Opera House“ was La Monnaie / De Munt in Brussels.
In its laudation, the jury called Jürgen Rose’s life a “Gesamtkunstwerk that defies categorisation”. As an artist he “has mastered almost every craft, co-creating sets, costumes and dramaturgy for more than 300 operas, plays, ballets and operettas, while also working as a director and, in his early days, even as an actor. He achieved his breakthrough at 25 with Cranko’s Romeo and Juliet in Stuttgart; he took his final bow at 76 with Wagner’s Ring in Geneva. He has always hit the mark – a perfectionist and a team player at the same time. For this, he has been loved and feared – and become a stylistic trailblazer for an entire generation of students. Countless images are permanently seared into our memories. For example: the bizarre insect world of The Cunning Little Vixen in Munich. Or Daland’s folded-up, tilted, spinning house in Bayreuth. Thank you for everything, Jürgen Rose.”
Ulrich Ruhnke
Chair of the OPER! AWARDS Jury